iOS

Jailbreak

Cydia

Judge Denise Cote recently spoke out and shared her concerns over the terms of Apple’s e-book settlement of $450 million. She specifically takes issue with a clause where Apple might only have to pay $70 million. This would be the scenario if her earlier decision is overturned by an appeals court and sent back down for reevaluation. More specifically, this provision could greatly reduce the damages payout. Another clause she is concerned about, is if the Cupertino-based company is exonerated then they would pay nothing.

She continued by questioning whether it was fair to decrease the monetary damages by such an amount. The last issue she spoke up about was whether Apple would be forced to pay interest on said damages during appeals proceedings. She felt as if they should be but as of right now, it’s up in the air.

For those of you who didn’t already know about the situation, back in July of 2013, Judge Cote found Apple guilty of increasing the prices of e-books sold through the iBookstore by collaborating with five major book publishers.Apple ended up receiving an injunction which prevented the company from entering any similar arrangement with other book publishers.

Fast forward to last week, Apple ended up settling with 33 US states and territories for a maximum of $450 million. $400 million was going to customers affected by the price increase of iBookstore’s e-books. Had the case went to trial, plaintiffs would have expected to see up to $840 million in damages.

As of right now, the settlement hasn’t been confirmed by Judge Cote yet. We’ll have to wait and see what the final decision turns out to be.